


Shining Bright

by queen_scribbles



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Late Night Conversations, Light Side Sith Warrior, Light-Side Jaesa Willsaam, Male-Female Friendship, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 12:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18800791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: Jaesa has some questions about her new master, seeing as he's not at all what she expected from a Sith.





	Shining Bright

 

It was hard to meditate on Taris. Even among the Republic, bolstered by the serenity of fellow Jedi, it would have been difficult. Out in the middle of a swamp with only a Sith Lord--her _new master_ \--for company, Jaesa couldn’t focus past the first line of the Code.

_There is no emotion, there is peace_

But she  _could_ feel emotions; the air all but roiled with them. The thousands who died centuries ago, the current occupying forces, even herself, all contributing. There was no peace here.

The Jedi would say it was a failure to wrestle with such doubt, to follow a Sith. And Jaesa might have agreed with them. But she’d _seen_. On Hutta, when Tragen had not only let her use her power on him but _encouraged_ it. He _shone_ , bright as some of the masters who’d trained her, bright enough it was a wonder his fellow Sith didn’t see.

 Or maybe he was just so practiced at hiding it, only Jaesa’s power could see its true depth. That would explain, at least in part, how he’d been deemed worthy of apprenticeship by a Darth whose paranoia Jaesa had frequently heard extolled. It still left the conundrum of how he’d survived his training to that point without indulging in the expected wanton cruelty or giving himself away. Clearly he’d managed _somehow_. It still made him the most confusing Sith Jaesa had ever met.

Dwelling on the puzzle that was Tragen Xo’ric was not going to make meditating any easier. There were enough challenges here, she didn’t need to be adding another. The answers would come eventually. They always did. Jaesa tried one last time to clear her mind and find peace to commune with the Force, but the surrounding emotions were too strong. With a frustrated huff that would have gotten her a lecture on temperance from Master Karr(deeply ironic, in hindsight), she pushed to her feet and stepped out into the night air.

“Can’t sleep?” Tragen asked without turning around. He was perched cross-legged on a flat rock not far from the shelters they had erected for the night, focused on repairing one of his lightsabers.

“I didn’t make it that far,” Jaesa admitted, sitting next to him in a matching pose.  “I was trying to meditate, but there’s so much.... emotional noise I can’t manage. It’s too distracting. What are _you_ doing?”

He hefted the lightsaber hilt in one hand. “The casing was dented. I wanted to be sure it hadn’t damaged the focusing crystal.” He turned to look at her, a half-smile pulling at his lips. “Wouldn’t want it exploding in the middle of a fight, now, would I?”

“No, that... that would be bad,” she agreed, tucking her hair behind one ear. “Did you fix the problem?”

“I did indeed,” Tragen said, securing the lightsaber and its twin to the clips on his belt. He leaned back, bracing against the stone, and looked up at the sky. “Now I can enjoy the spectacular view.”

Jaesa followed his gaze and had to admit he was right; the breathtaking abundance of stars was indeed spectacular. But that he not only noticed but appreciated it was just one more thing to contradict what she’d been told about the Sith. “Master...” she began slowly, not sure she wanted to ask the question even as curiosity ate her alive.  “How... Forgive me if this is too bold, but how did you end up Sith?”

“Despite my penchant for leaving people I encounter _alive_ , you mean?” Tragen said wryly, his gaze still on the bright stars that peppered the sky.

“Well... yes,” she admitted. “You’re nothing like what Master Karr and the others told me to expect from Sith. You have principles, and honor. You...” She thought back to the Siantide mine earlier that same day. “You’re a man of your word.”

“It hasn’t been easy. But it’s how I was raised,” he replied, studying the sky with an intensity that spoke to a need for distraction. “My parents, my whole culture, spent a decade drumming loyalty, integrity, and all that into my head before the Empire got their hands on me. Despite the difficulty, it’s stuck.”

Jaesa cocked her head and studied him. He was so confident in his dealings, so sure of himself, that it was usually easy to forget he was barely older than her.  “Got their hands on you?” she finally parroted.

Tragen sighed. “I grew up on Stenos,” he said. “Small world, not far from the border between Imperial and Hutt space. Strong cultural value on fairness, loyalty, and honor, especially among the nobility.” From the way his posture instinctively straightened, ever so briefly, Jaesa was willing to bet his family had belonged to said nobility. “Long story short, we were... manipulated into joining the Empire shortly before the Treaty of Coruscant was signed, and after that anyone Force Sensitive was taken for Sith training.”

“And what’s the longer version?” she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

He raised an eyebrow, skepticism plain in his features. “You really want the longer version?”

Jaesa shrugged. “If you don’t mind sharing it. That’s the sort of thing that helps build the master-apprentice bond, after all.”

Tragen chuckled and looked back to the sky. “A fair point. Very well then. We remained neutral during the Great Galactic War, almost the entire duration. Though not for lack of trying on the Empire’s part, believe me. Stenos sits at the juncture of three hyperlanes, and there were extensive Imperial supply lines running through our planet.”

“They wanted your sworn loyalty so they wouldn’t have to worry about you cutting off their supply lines or holding them hostage,” she interjected as the direction this was heading struck her.

“Exactly.” He nodded. “Also, if we were part of the Empire, they would save quite a sum in tariffs and trade fees. Finally, however, after years of trying to sweet talk the leadership into _willing_ obeisance, the Imperial diplomat realized just how much the Stenosi economy depended on those supply lines. The end of our partnership would be an inconvenience to the Empire, force them to look elsewhere for that piece of their supply lines, but a deathblow to us. And with that knowledge, she promptly blackmailed the leadership into submission. _Join the Empire, or lose our business_.”

“That’s awful,” Jaesa blurted, aghast at the casual cruelty of being willing to plunge a whole planet into poverty if you couldn’t have your way.

“But effective,” Tragen replied. “They swore to us our lives wouldn’t change much; just a small planetary tribute sent to Dromund Kaas every few months, perhaps a garrison in our capitol city to ensure the Empire’s interests on the planet were protected. Our rulers knew we couldn’t survive losing those supply lines, and so kowtowed.” He smiled grimly up at the sharp, bright stars. “Less than a year later, the week before I turned eleven, in fact, the Treaty of Coruscant was signed.”

“I’m assuming the Empire didn’t keep their word?” she asked softly.

“Oh, for the most part they did. At first. They had neglected to mention the sweeps for Force Sensitives.” He ran one hand through his hair. “First the adults were _offered_ the chance to become Sith, have power and control over shaping that galaxy’s destiny. By the time they came for the teenagers and children, it wasn’t an _offer_ , it was an _order:_  come with us or face dire consequences.”

“How old were you when they finally....?” Jaesa left the end unsaid. _Found you_.

Tragen shifted, sitting forward and crossing his arms, gaze dropping from sky to earth. “Thirteen. It helped, I suppose, that my parents were both high ranking members of the government. They started with the lower classes and worked their way up. They likely figured the.... workers and downtrodden would be more eager to grasp at a chance for power than those who already had it.”

She shifted as well and hugged her knees into her chest. “I imagine they were right. Many of the servants and working class I knew growing up would have leapt at the chance for some control over their own fate, if nothing else.”

He nodded noncommittally. “They were. And the ones who didn’t leap at the opportunity were left behind only to  _‘mysteriously vanish_ ’ within a week or two. By the time they made it to the nobility in their search, it was almost a good thing they’d dropped all pretenses; we’d figured out the game. I still didn’t want to go. My father had to talk me round by couching it as ‘due loyalty’ and ‘part of belonging to the Empire’; terms no good Stenosi citizen could argue.”

“That’s all it took?” Jaesa whispered. She’d been fed grand tales of what her power could do to shape the galaxy for good, if only trained and refined, how she shouldn’t waste her talents by staying hidden, and she’d still been reluctant to leave her parents.

“Loyalty is the core upon which our whole society was built. It takes a great deal for betrayal to even be seen as a necessary evil, let alone the correct course of action,” Tragen explained.  “And even reluctance to do your part is viewed poorly. He put it in those terms, told me to show them what a child of Stenos could do, and off I went to Ziost.”

“And somehow managed to cling to your values without them getting you killed through, what, seven years of training?”

He hesitated, then shrugged. “Most of them, at least. A few things did slide, and I was still lectured for being too soft, even when I claimed letting opponents live was leaving them to wallow in the humiliation of defeat. But yes, my principles remained largely intact, if well hidden.”

“It must be _extremely_ well hidden,” Jaesa said wryly, “if Darth Baras missed it. Master Karr told me often how shrewd and paranoid he is.”

Tragen chuckled, equally wry, and looked back up at the stars, still shining bright “I’ll let you in on my secret, Jaesa, because you’ll likely need it, as well. Around fellow Sith I nurture a surface layer of the expected emotions; hate, rage, lust, various passions in general, and say the right things while keeping my true thoughts buried deep.”

“And you just... do that all the time? Did it all through your training?” She stared at him in disbelief. “Isn’t that _exhausting_?”

“At times, yes,” he said frankly. “But it’s better than meeting a gruesome end before I can bring about the changes the Empire needs. And after a while, unless you’re around a particularly powerful or insightful Darth, it’s so second nature you barely notice the effort.” He smirked. “Consider that my first lesson to you, apprentice.”

Jaesa mustered a brief smile at his teasing tone. “And well I appreciate it, master.” She bit her lip as a thought struck her. “On Hutta, I... I didn’t sense anything but your mercy, your walk down the light path.”

“I dropped my guard,” Tragen said, looking over at her as he answered the implied question. “Completely. I knew honesty was the best route, the _only_ route. Letting you see me as I truly am, no matter the risk, was the only way to convince you.” He chuckled. “Still didn’t work as well as I _hoped_ , but...”

She rolled her eyes at the gentle dig. “It was very confusing. You literally flipped my world on its head, what did you expect me to do?”

“A fair point. And it worked out well in the end. Though I am surprised Baras bought that particular lie.”

“I’ve found people require far less evidence to believe things they _want_ to be true compared to otherwise,” Jaesa said, tugging up a clump of grass and stripping it apart. “You were telling him his longtime rival and personal nemesis was dead, had me standing next to you as ‘proof’, it only follows he’d be all too happy to believe you. Even Darth Baras isn’t infallible.”

“I’'m relying on that; we won’t be able to change a thing if people like him don’t occasionally slip up.” Tragen sighed and turned his gaze skyward yet again. Despite the difficulty of the tasks ahead of them, both on Taris and their longer-term goals, Jaesa only felt calm certainty from him tonight, shining like the stars above them. As if sensing her perusal, Tragen glanced over at her. “It’s rather late, Jaesa. Perhaps you should simply get some rest for now and try to meditate in the morning.”

She nodded and pushed to her feet, taking the hint.  “Of course, master. You’ll wake me when it’s my turn to watch?”

“I shall,” he nodded in return. “Good night.”

“Good night.” Jaesa returned to her tent a good deal less puzzled than she’d been when she left it. And even if she did take Tragen’s advice to get some sleep, she felt perhaps meditating wouldn’t have been so hard anymore.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This came about through using Jaesa to explore and build Tragen's backstory. (Tragen is pronounced Tray-jen, btw. I borrowed the name from an acquaintance's kid, but have no idea how they spell it so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯) Yes, his method for surviving this long is essentially what Atton does to throw off Jedi(just with Sith, obviously). Because why not? It helps that he’s extremely confident and charismatic as hell, so when he’s trying to convince/persuade people, he usually succeeds just off his own merits and doesn’t even need to give it a Force boost. 
> 
> He and Jaesa wind up with a master/apprentice bond that’s almost more mentoring friendship than anything else, bc he’s only about three months older than her. It's very fun to write.


End file.
